Devils, Demons, and Spirits

No formal lines of distinction exist among demons, devils, and spirits, supernatural beings possessed of extrahuman powers and capable of impinging on human affairs. "Spirit" is the most inclusive term, referring to any entity inhabiting an intermediary plane of existence between the mundane and the divine realms. "Devil" is the narrowest term, always referring to malevolent spirits, the evil analogues to angels. "Demon," however, is subject to a wider range of interpretation. The term is from the Greek word daimon, which in its earliest usage connoted a divine spirit. When Socrates spoke of his daimon, he was referring to what might now be termed a guardian angel. The early monotheistic sects tended to regard such spirits in a negative light. In the Greek versions of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, the term "daimon" is used as a synonym for "devil," and in subsequent Jewish and Christian traditions demons serve as minions of Satan.

In other traditions, however, the moral character of demons and spirits is much more complex. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shinto feature both compassionate and malicious demons. There are some evil Native American spirits—monstrous entities such as the Windigo among the Algonquins or the Uktena among the Cherokee. But these are less common than such numinous powers as the Algonquin manitou, which can either plague or protect. Similarly, Islamic jinn are inherently neither good nor bad, and African diasporic religions such as Vodun (Voodoo) and Santería are centered on mercurial, morally ambiguous spirits who mete loving protection and stern justice in equal measure. A number of traditions, including Neopaganism, revere genii loci, the indwelling spirits of trees, mountains, crossroads, and other sacred places.

The Spiritual Landscape

Because so many different religions have taken root in American soil, the spiritual landscape of the United States is extraordinarily rich and variegated. Haitian mambos and houngans, Cuban santeros and babalawos; Puerto Rican espiritistas, Mexican curanderas, Chinese wu, Korean mudang and manshin, Taiwanese dangki, Native American dream doctors, evangelical faith healers, New Age channelers, and other ritual specialists in all fifty states traffic in legions of benign and baneful spirits every day.

Many spirits, particularly evils ones such as the peey of Hinduism, appear as undifferentiated specters, horrific or nebulous in appearance. Others, such as the kami of Shinto or the lwa of Vodun, are distinctive components of complex pantheons and are represented through detailed iconographic traditions. (Though the lwa live in compassionate reciprocal relationships with their human followers, there are other Vodun spirits, unambiguously evil entities known as baka or kombinayson, whom the faithful diligently avoid.) Some demons are the spirits of animals. Yet others are members of the family—ghosts of ancestors who have remained to aid or to vex their descendants.

Immigrant spirits may undergo processes of acculturation. Although Jews once boasted a rich demonological tradition, this was lost during the movement during the nineteenth century to rationalize Jewish belief. Devilish spirits (shedim) inhabit the pages of Isaac Bashevis Singer's fictional depictions of East European shtetl life, but in contemporary America even Orthodox Jewish communities have abandoned these Old World folkways. Recently, however, klipot —"shells" or evil powers—have made a comeback in the context of the popular revival of Kabbalah.

Another example of demonic adaptation may be found in the recharacterization of jinn among African-American Muslims. Although there are incarnations of evil and mischief in Islam in the form of Shaitan or Iblis, many Muslims regard jinn as morally neutral, though their manifestation on the mortal plane always invites concern. Individuals who display extraordinary abilities may be suspected of being jinn who have taken on human form. However, among members of the Nation of Islam, one of the largest African-American Muslim sects in the United States, jinn have been recast as exclusively malevolent and as responsible for the system of racial oppression. It is in this sense that Elijah Muhammad, the major herald of the Nation of Islam, famously referred to white people as "devils."

Conversion may transform one's spiritual perceptions. For example, Haitian converts to evangelical Protestantism typically maintain their belief in the power of the lwa, the tutelary spirits of Vodun. But whereas the lwa appear to most Haitians as deities worthy of love and reverence, they appear to proselytes as devils requiring extirpation. Charismatic Christians also identify as demonic the spirits and energies cherished by New Age practitioners.

Although benevolent spirits make cameo appearances in popular novels and films, evil powers typically get the starring roles. Following the success of The Exorcist (1976), Hollywood has produced a great many movies chronicling the sanguinary exploits of hellish spirits, including a series of films about Chucky, a doll infested by a homicidal devil. Millions of readers consume stories of demonic conflict by novelists like Stephen King and Frank E. Peretti. Horrific kami are stock characters in Japanese cartoons (anime) and comic books (manga), which have found a wide audience in America. Popular fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Magic, and Diablo feature spirits from various religious traditions.

Spiritual Warfare

Devils and other malefic spirits represent, for many Americans, abysmal sources of illness and woe. In popular conception, Satan and his subordinates are directly responsible for a range of maladies—medical (epilepsy, cancer, the flu), material (a flat tire, a car crash), psychological (alcoholism, depression, delinquency), interrelational (spousal infidelity, filial insubordination, parental abuse), and social (abortion, pornography, drug abuse, unemployment, crime). Devils accomplish their work by adopting human forms, by infesting mortal bodies, by sowing evil ideas in impressionable minds, and by manipulating the natural and material worlds. Charismatic Christians liken their struggle against such infernal machinations to "spiritual warfare."

Although the term is new, the idea of spiritual warfare is not. Battling and exorcising demons has been a prominent feature of popular Christianity in America since the Colonial period. In the 1950s, Pentecostal evangelists such as A. A. Allen (1911–1970) and Oral Roberts (1918–) built popular ministries on "deliverance"—spiritual healing through the repulsion of evil forces. In the 1960s and 1970s, Neopentecostals such as Derek Prince (1915–) and Don Basham (1926–1989) introduced deliverance to a wider audience, including priestly and lay members of the Charismatic Renewal Movement within the Roman Catholic Church.

Charismatic Christians fend off demons through personal and group prayer, healing ceremonies, and rituals of exorcism. The therapeutic process differs for Americans of faith who consult mambos, mudang, curanderas, and other shamans. New Age practitioners have also adapted and developed many techniques for repelling destructive spirits.

Exorcism is not always an appropriate response to supernatural affliction. Sometimes the source of ill fortune is an ancestral spirit seeking to rebuke misconduct by the living. In such cases, relief will be found only by divining and redressing the concerns of the deceased, a process that may involve a shaman becoming possessed by a spirit. Protective measures are also common. Charms, amulets, prayer cloths, oils, incense, crystals, and other articles are sold as guards against evil forces and as channels for benign energies.

See alsoAngels; Catholic Charismatic Renewal; Evangelical Christianity; Exorcism; Magic; Pentagram; Pentecostaland Charismatic Christianity; SanterÍa; Satanists; Spirit Guides; Spiritualism; Vodun.

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Bradford Verter